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Introduction
Horseshoe crabs are often referred to as living fossils - the reason is super apparent when we look at a photo of the oldest known (published) horseshoe crabs, Lunataspis aurora, next to two modern horseshoe crabs, Limulus polyphemus and Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda.
Old vs. New
However, this claim hasn’t actually been evaluated; i.e. we don’t know if horseshoe crabs display really low rates of evolution throughout time. Also, there are some really weird and interesting things that some groups do that others don’t!
One of those things is just looking really different.
Weirdos!
Another one of those things is exploring new niches:
Weirdos!
They’re associated with each other too! Isn’t that interesting…?